2nd Progress Report - Part 2

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This transcription is complete

TUESDAY, 19th FEBRUARY, 1918. (At Wannamal.)

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Present: J. O. GILES, Esq. (Chairman). H. H. Paynter, Esq., F. E. Venn, Esq.

DONALD MacPHERSON, Grazier, "The Sheiling," Wannamal, examined:

11421. To the CHAIRMAN: I have been five years in this district. I have about 5,000 acres. It is 11 miles from the railway station. I consider that 500 acres is first class land. I have 150 acres cleared. It is all fenced and subdivided into about 30 paddocks. I have a bat house of five rooms with necessary shed and stabling, a working plant, 40 horses, 10 head of cattle, 500 sheep, and one pig. the property is well watered with wells and springs. I purchased this as an improved property.

11422. Can you make interest on your investment?—No, I have lost money every year. I consider I paid too much for the place owing to my inexperience. I was a seaman before I went on to the land.

11423. To Mr VENN: Wild dogs are bad. These have helped considerably to keep me back.

11424. You do not go in for dairying, I presume?—No, I am too far from the market and from the railway station.


11425. Do you practice irrigation?—Yes, I have a plot of four acres of Lucerne, My intention was to buy sheep and fatten them, but so far I have not discovered a way to feed my Lucerne to the sheep profitably. The Lucerne has been in for three years and I find it is getting better each year.

11426. Is there much land in this district suitable for Lucerne growing?—There are a few favourable spots in the pockets of the ranges. The wash from the hills gives a great depth of soil. I have started now to breed horses and I consider I shall do well with them. I do not consider this district is adapted for cropping.

11427. How many sheep can you carry?—I can carry 1,500, but if I could afford to fence and get the poison off my property I could carry many more.

11428. What class of poison is it?— It is very similar to York Road, but it grows like a tree. There is one satisfactory feature about it, that once it is pulled it will not come again.

11429. By the CHAIRMAN: How much of your land is poison infested?—Twelve hundred acres is badly infested in places. This is in the rough hills, where it is often difficult to find. I have 2,000 acres ready for sheep.

11430. to Mr PAYNTER: Labour is unprocurable except at an exorbitant figure. This is one of the greatest difficulties we have to contend with now.

11431. By the CHAIRMAN: Why do you only carry 500 sheep?—The dogs have been the trouble. Also I have not been able to fence a greater area from the poison. I lost 300 to 400 sheep when I first came here through not understanding how to cope with the poison.

11432. Do you go in for cropping?—I crop about 100 acres for my own use. This year even that was a failure.

11433. By the CHAIRMAN: I suppose you run your horses on the poison country?—Yes.

11434. Are your neighbours troubled with the dogs?—Yes, Mr Padbury loses a lot of sheep. Mr Padbury and I offered £2 for each dog destroyed. We have paid for two. Mr Padbury lost nearly 1,000 sheep in the last three years.

11435. You have no vermin board here?—No. (The Chairman explained that it would be advisable for the settlers to induce the roads board to constitute themselves a vermin board.)

11436. WITNESS: There are only two people, myself and Mr Padbury, who are interested. Mr Padbury has circularised the district asking htem to combine.

11437. Bu the CHAIRMAN: So far as your own position is concerned, I conclude that if it was not for the dogs and shortage of capital you could get on well?—I think so. (The witness retired.)

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ARTHUR ERNEST LEESON, Farmer, Wannamal, sworn and examined:

11438. to the CHAIRMAN: I have been seven years settled in this district. I was previously butchering. I have 575 acres two miles from the railway east of here. I do not think any of mine is first class land, it is all second class, for which I am paying 10s. an acre C.P. It is all fenced and subdivided into six paddocks. I have 300 acres cleared, a five-roomed house, the necessary sheds and stable, and with my brother we share a farming plant. I have nine horses, 15 head of cattle and 175 sheep. I started with £1,000 capital. This has not been sufficient to keep me out of debt. I have received £200 from my father and had £350 from the Agricultural Bank and we owe merchants respectively £40 and £15. I owe three years' rent also.

11439. How is it you have not been able to make a success?—My brother and I were in partnership and we started on the wrong lines. We went in for cropping instead of stock. Last year I put in 70 acres and got nothing back. If I could only get my paddocks clear of poison I could run more sheep. I cannot pay my rents and the Lands Department